The present invention relates to office workstations, and in particular to freestanding support structures for office workstation worksurfaces.
Open office plans are well-known in the art, and generally comprise large, open floor spaces in buildings that are furnished in a manner that is readily reconfigurable to accommodate the ever changing needs of a specific user, as well as the divergent requirements of different tenants. One arrangement commonly used for furnishing open plans includes movable partition panels that are detachably interconnected to partition off the open spaces into individual workstations or offices. Such partition panels are configured to receive hang-on furniture units, such as worksurfaces, overhead cabinets, shelves, etc., and are generally known in the office furniture industry as "Systems Furniture." Another arrangement for dividing or partitioning open plans includes modular furniture arrangements, in which a plurality of differently shaped, freestanding furniture units are interconnected in a side-by-side relationship, with upstanding privacy screens attached to at least some of the furniture units to create individual, distinct workstations, or offices.
Conventional, built-in offices and conference rooms are typically expensive to construct and maintain, and are not usually considered an efficient use of space in open plan environments. When such conventional rooms are constructed in rented office space, they become permanent leasehold improvements, which must be depreciated over a lengthy time period, and cannot be readily moved upon the expiration of the lease. The reconfiguration of such spaces is quite messy, and very disruptive to conducting day-to-day business. Furthermore, even the use of prior art partitioning arrangements results in disruption of day-to-day business, since dividing panels of such systems are often shared between adjacent workstations. Additionally, the prior art partitioning systems also require that the worksurfaces and storage units utilized therein be of a particular configuration and size for mounting on the partition panels. Such size is dictated by the individual panel lengths utilized in constructing the workstation, and any desired change to larger or smaller units typically also requires the reconfiguration of the partitioning panels thus further disrupting the occupants of adjacent workstations.
Efficient use of building floor space is also an ever growing concern, particularly as building costs continue to escalate. Many types of highly trained workers, such as engineers, accountants, computer programmers, and the like, are now being supported in open office settings, instead of conventional private offices in order to gain increased efficiency of real estate and life cycle costs. These professional workers require a combination of privacy and efficiency of available work space to accomplish the increasing demands of their respective professions. Thus, it is important to provide such highly skilled workers with furnishings that can establish a proper balance between worker privacy, worker interaction, while still employing the efficiency of an open office plan and provide for ready and easy reconfigurability with a minimum disruption to adjacent workstations.